The Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Aside from its great quality, this show is an interesting time capsule. This was the first Spider-Man outside of the comics to focus on Peter's high school years. I remember when it first came out, a lot of people didn't know that Peter first became Spider-Man in high school and not in college. Flash forward to 2020 and we are being spammed with High School Spider-Man. I wonder if the success of this show is in any way responsible for Sony/Disney's over-reliance on the high school years.

I think it's unrelated. Remember that the Disney-Marvel buy out happened after the show's second season and in fact is the reason why the show got canned. Weisman said that he learned about this in the news and wasn't told so in person. Weisman said that he was going to age up the characters as the seasons progressed but he was never able to do so. But such is life.

Disney/Marvel focusing on high school Peter has to do with their first cartoon series being a version of Ultimate Spider-Man (that had nothing to do with the comic other than the name). A fairly bad cartoon with decent quality animation FWIW and for them targeting a very small and very young audience. Weisman's Spectacular for instance was written with greater maturity and targeted all ages, like the DCAU.

This show also does an interesting idea with the Green Goblin I haven't seen before: The Green Goblin is an evolving character like Spider-Man.

This was done before to some extent in Raimi's Spider-Man 1. If you watch that movie the origins of Goblin and Spider-Man are crosscut with one another, running parallel but not intersecting until the final act. Norman would have been Goblin without Peter, and vice-versa.

That is how he goes from being an unknown to taking over a whole empire by the end. I wish the comics would put more emphasis on this. It would explain how Norman also becomes an Avengers villain by the time Peter gets to be a 28-year old high school teacher and an Avenger.

Spectacular Spider-Man's take on Norman Osborn is probably the most compelling and convincing version. You get right away why this guy is the biggest villain in the rogues, and he's charismatic and compelling as both Norman and Goblin...and the show goes back to the Ditko version which always portrayed Norman as sane and rational and entirely in control. As opposed to the "Goblin made me do it" melodrama that came with Romita.

[Frontier]

Is probably this and the influence of Bendis Ultimate Spider-Man.

Yeah, Ultimate had an influence on quite a few of the more teen-focused Spider-Man adaptions.

It probably helps that the entire run took place in high school (or Miles in Junior High?).

[Mistah K88]

Yup, before Spec i think than the last episode of the TAS cartoon was the only time that she appeared in other media. Althought i always assumed that Emma Stone take was based in Ultimate MJ to an extent.

Gwen appeared in Spider-Man 3 as well...but like that TAS episode...she was just kind of there. I will say it was the first time that Gwen was known as a serious contender as a love interest outside of comics...

Aside from its great quality, this show is an interesting time capsule. This was the first Spider-Man outside of the comics to focus on Peter's high school years. I remember when it first came out, a lot of people didn't know that Peter first became Spider-Man in high school and not in college.

I also remember people being upset that Mary Jane wasn't the primary and one and only love interest like she was in the 94 cartoon and the Raimi movies as well... It's always interesting to see how much adaptive media can shape the minds of a good chunk of the general public (though I suppose being more accessible helps).

This show also does an interesting idea with the Green Goblin I haven't seen before: The Green Goblin is an evolving character like Spider-Man. That is how he goes from being an unknown to taking over a whole empire by the end. I wish the comics would put more emphasis on this. It would explain how Norman also becomes an Avengers villain by the time Peter gets to be a 28-year old high school teacher and an Avenger.

Norman did manage to achieve his primary goal in becoming the top crime lord in New York, however one has to admit, just like in comics, part of his success came from the fact that Peter LET HIM GO (Well...here Peter thought he was letting Harry go, but the result is still the same). Norman was still sloppy in the last minute framing of Harry; as he still linked the Green Goblin to himself. Thus HAD to cut loose ends after achieving his goal of becoming a crime lord because the second Spider-Man got a glimpse of him, it'd be "off to the Osborn residence". I sound like a broken record but after seeing that...I can only imagine how crafty the Hobgoblin mystery would be... heck I even have a hard time trying to put stuff together in comics despite KNOWING the end result.

I'd say that a good chunk of the characters evolved as time went on...Liz, Flash, etc. Especially Jonah, who didn't really seem to care about Spider-Man at first outside of selling papers, but had a legitimate reason to dislike Spider-Man by the second season.

[TheCape]

I always forget that Gwen was in Spider-Man 3

[Batman Begins 2005]

I love this show. It's by far my favourite Spider-Man. The Spectacular Spider-Man to Spider-Man is Batman: The Animated Series to Batman. Speaking of, it's a shame you can't get The Spectacular Spider-Man merchandise to the level you can Batman: The Animated Series. Batman: The Animated Series memorabilia I seek out and are key parts of my Batman collection. I do have a hoodie from The Spectacular Spider-Man.

[Voices From the Eyrie]

Easily the best adaptation of Spider-Man there is. The best of the animated shows. Better than any of the theatrical movies. Better than Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man comics. Everything I love about Spidey and his world, the heart and soul of all of it is present here.

[Snoop Dogg]

Speccy Norman has big Animated Megatron calm dominant energy.

[Spidey_62]

Speccy Norman has big Animated Megatron calm dominant energy.

He never apologizes yo.

It makes me sad how this show just doesn't get the love and recognition it deserves partially due to it being owned by Sony so it literally doesn't get brought up in the conversation by Marvel because they didn't make it/don't own it/therefore do not care. It's really sad because they made a better show than any of them ever did or did since lol and it feels like it just slips under the radar due to its relatively short run coming in at the wrong place at the wrong time, and things like people still being stubborn to not give it a chance because they think it looks "cartoony."

One of my absolute pipe dreams is if since Sony doesn't own Crackle anymore and none of their Marvel content has been on there since April, that one day all the Sony stuff will make it to Disney Plus/Hulu for streaming. You never know, a streaming deal might be possible with Sony and Marvel's relationship if they ever desire. General audience folks are always asking about why the MCU Spidey movies aren't on Disney Plus or why Spectacular Spider-Man isn't on Disney Plus so like, just do it. Put it on there and while you're at it make a joint Sony/Marvel production outta reviving the show for a third season on Disney Plus. That would be a big fan goodwill gesture, turn more people onto it and also be a real quality add to the service. Even if it were just the original run being added, just do it. We're gonna have the new Spidey cartoon for preschoolers soon, why not have something for everybody else too?

[Frontier]

Speccy Norman has big Animated Megatron calm dominant energy.

Which is funny because the Goblin is voiced by Starscream .

[TheCape]

Which is funny because the Goblin is voiced by Starscream .

Sometimes you could heard the Green Goblin in Starcream

[Pattern_Maker]

I always liked how Spectacular showed the symbiote talking to Peter and Eddie, and how Josh Keaton and Ben Diskin voiced the symbiote when it was bonded to them. It gave a visual of an internal conflict and how the symbiote was trying to tempt Peter into keeping the power and only looking out for number one. That's one of the things Spectacular handled better than the other adaptions, it gave you time to see the symbiote influence and the Spider-Man symbol actually changed into Venom's overtime.

[Voices From the Eyrie]

Which is funny because the Goblin is voiced by Starscream .

Nah, Starscream is voiced by Goblin!

[Mistah K88]

I always liked how Spectacular showed the symbiote talking to Peter and Eddie, and how Josh Keaton and Ben Diskin voiced the symbiote when it was bonded to them. It gave a visual of an internal conflict and how the symbiote was trying to tempt Peter into keeping the power and only looking out for number one. That's one of the things Spectacular handled better than the other adaptions, it gave you time to see the symbiote influence and the Spider-Man symbol actually changed into Venom's overtime.

You know, the suit changing from being a dye job like Spider-Man 3 to being more like the classic symbiote suit over time was one of the better ideas. It never made sense that the symbiote would create it's own spider in the '94 series (since they didn't tie the origin to Secret Wars with Peter subconsciously taking inspiration from Julia Carpenter's Spider-Woman costume), and while the Spider-Man 3 outfit made more sense, it was pretty mediocre in design (though the black webs were a stroke of genius). This is before the spider on Venom's chest became known as the "symbol of Knull" (sorry all...I just really hate that retcon), so seeing the web pattern starting to disappear (removed from Spidey's torso in the Sinister Six episode) and the little spider on his chest start to open its legs outward to resemble the classic suit was a brilliant move.

Is it just me...or did Peter's male friends secretly hate him in this show? Eddie was pretty obvious when he became Venom and ranted about Peter having his "precious aunt and uncle" in the final episode of Season 1, but I started to notice minor things with Harry as well (like him trying to redirect attention to himself when people were shocked about Peter bringing Mary Jane to their school dance, or him getting mad at Peter for doing better than him in football tryouts).

[TheCape]

You know, the suit changing from being a dye job like Spider-Man 3 to being more like the classic symbiote suit over time was one of the better ideas. It never made sense that the symbiote would create it's own spider in the '94 series (since they didn't tie the origin to Secret Wars with Peter subconsciously taking inspiration from Julia Carpenter's Spider-Woman costume), and while the Spider-Man 3 outfit made more sense, it was pretty mediocre in design (though the black webs were a stroke of genius). This is before the spider on Venom's chest became known as the "symbol of Knull" (sorry all...I just really hate that retcon), so seeing the web pattern starting to disappear (removed from Spidey's torso in the Sinister Six episode) and the little spider on his chest start to open its legs outward to resemble the classic suit was a brilliant move.

Is it just me...or did Peter's male friends secretly hate him in this show? Eddie was pretty obvious when he became Venom and ranted about Peter having his "precious aunt and uncle" in the final episode of Season 1, but I started to notice minor things with Harry as well (like him trying to redirect attention to himself when people were shocked about Peter bringing Mary Jane to their school dance, or him getting mad at Peter for doing better than him in football tryouts).

I think that it was more jealousy than downright hate in the case of Harry, he has inferiority complex toward hid father and Peter, i was curious if he would end as another Eddie Brock or if the best part of his nature would win at the end. Eddie? definetly more close to hate, althougth it might have been tied to Peter's lies and the symbiote feeding of his negative emotions, i also interested if the show would have tackled Eddie's desire to die, Weisman mentioned that he was a death seeker.

[TheCape]

Also was anyone else weirded out by Eddie's mouth stomach thing, i certanly was back then when i still wasn't reading comics.